Priority is claimed with respect to application No. 199 07 327.9 filed in Germany on Feb. 20, 1999, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to a device used in the tobacco-processing industry for emptying containers filled with rod-shaped articles into a magazine, the device comprising at least one container holder for accommodating a container that is open on the upper narrow side and the wide frontal side and can be tilted by 180xc2x0 into an emptying position above the magazine. The container holder has an article support that can be moved relative to the narrow open side of the container.
After leaving the production machines, rod-shaped articles such as cigarettes, filter cigarettes or filter rods are frequently stored temporarily, in a parallel alignment inside containers, having the form of so-called racks with a depth of approximately one cigarette length, which are open on the top and front. The filled racks are then tilted upside down by the container holder, which can be pivoted by 180xc2x0, and emptied into a magazine serving as a storage container for a processing machine. In the process, the articles drop due to their inherent weight, in a free fall, onto the level of the articles already stored in the storage container. Efforts are made to keep the falling distance as short as possible to ensure a continued parallel alignment and prevent the articles from falling in a disorderly fashion into the rack during the emptying operation, thus causing production interruptions in the processing machine.
One essential circumstance that effects the more or less orderly discharge of the articles is the manner in which the discharge opening on the rack is released by the blade-type support strips of the container holder.
With a closing system, normally used in practical operations, the support strips are designed as tilting blades, which are tilted downward by about 90xc2x0 during the sudden opening, so that their support surface, which extends in horizontal direction in the closed position, assumes a vertical position that effects the drop height.
Another generally used closing system consists of a flat pull blade, the linear opening movement of which causes friction on the articles.
It is an object of the invention to create a closing system for which the opening dynamic ensures a controlled transfer of the articles into a magazine at a minimum drop height.
The above and other objects are accomplished according to the invention by the provision of a device used in the tobacco-processing industry for emptying a container filled with rod-shaped articles into a magazine, the container having an open upper narrow side and an open wide front side, the device comprising: a container holder that accommodates the container and which can be tilted by 180xc2x0 so that the container assumes an emptying position above the magazine, the container holder including: an article support comprising two support strips mounted for being adjacent and movable relative to the open narrow side of the container; and actuation means connected to the article support for effecting an opening movement in which the two support strips undergo a vertical drop movement and a horizontal spreading movement in which the two movable strips move in opposite directions to respective sides of the container to allow the articles to be released from the container.
Thus, in accordance with the invention, the article support, which consists of two support strips that can be moved in opposite directions, is provided with actuation means that effect an opening movement, composed of a vertical drop movement and an essentially horizontal spreading movement to the side, resulting in an outward expanding movement.
A jerk-free or flowing transfer movement is achieved by designing the actuating means such that they act upon the article support by performing initially a mostly vertical drop movement, which is subsequently superimposed by a primarily spreading movement.
A separation of individual articles from the underside of the container filling is prevented so that a compact block-type lowering of the container content is ensured, in that the actuation means of the article support are designed to be accelerated less at the start of the vertical drop and to be accelerated more toward the end of the vertical drop where there is a transition to the primarily horizontal, spreading movement.
According to a modification of the invention, the aforementioned movement sequence or superimposition of movements can be achieved with relatively little expenditure in that the actuation means comprise a radial cam drive, which acts upon the article support, as well as control rods that can pivot around locally fixed shaft and act upon the pivoting levers of the article support, which carry the support strips.
With a simple, operationally safe embodiment of the actuation means, the radial cam drive comprises a cam disk that is driven such that it rotates around a locally fixed shaft and a cam roller that is positioned on a traverse, can be moved along a linear guide, and supports the pivoting levers.
According to another suggestion, an opening force that requires little expenditure is achieved in that tension springs act upon the pivoting levers and pre-stress the support strips in spreading direction.
In order to prevent a subsequent elastic bouncing back of the support strips to their opened position, it is furthermore suggested that the pivoting levers are connected with a hinge to the blocking levers that extend straight toward each other in the spread position, the joint central connecting hinge of which is connected to a traveling carriage guided inside a movable slide of the linear guide.
According to one advantageous embodiment, favorable spatial movement conditions of the vertical drop movement and the horizontal spreading movement result from the fact that the pivoting levers carrying the support strips extend considerably past the height of a container and are provided with contact points for the cam roller, connecting rod levers, tension springs and blocking levers, which succeed each other from top to bottom in the emptying position.
The advantage achieved with the invention is that the block formation of the container content is retained in the opening phase of the closing system and that no articles will separate out vertically or move away horizontally from the controlled dropping block, so that an uninterrupted operation of the machines for processing the articles further is ensured over the long term.